The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: Oppression in any form is against the will of God, no matter how legitimate it's been made to sound. You have been created and you have been redeemed to be free.

Guest (Male): Dr. Tony Evans says some of us have gotten so used to being dominated we've forgotten that we've been set free to serve God. This is The Alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

Most people associate oppression with demonic activity, slavery, or life under a dictatorship. But Dr. Evans says it can take many forms. Let's join him as he talks about how we can find our way out of oppression and into freedom.

Dr. Tony Evans: Today I want to talk to you about freedom from oppression. What do we mean by oppression? Oppression is imposed domination of another person or a group of people in order to control them mentally, physically, emotionally, and the worst of all spiritually, in order to stifle their aspirations and limit their potential. To be oppressed is to be dominated or held down or suppressed in such a way as to cancel or control or to limit your divinely ordained potential.

Everyone here who has been created by God, which is everyone here, was created with potential. Things that God has endowed you with in order to realize your maximum ability to be used under God. Your potential. A baby is a potential adult. It has to get there, but the potential for adulthood is resonant in the baby. That's where they're going.

Oppression seeks to hold that down, to limit you, to stifle you, to control you so you don't reach your potential. So that you're stopped from maximizing your divinely ordained reason for even being here. It involves restricting your God-given human potential so that it can stop God's plan for your life. It's called oppression.

Now oppression can take many forms on many levels. There is political oppression. You find this in dictatorships or military governance where a particular dictator in order to limit the power of others in the name of a political order. It's Russian communism under Lenin and that Marxist way of life where walls are built to hold people in and to stop them from being able to move from one place or another place. It is to hold them or contain them to limit them.

There is economic oppression. This is where the rich hold the poor down, keep them in classes so that they're not able to express themselves, get free to develop their own entrepreneurial spirit. It is where they are limited and they're stuck, not because that's where they want to be, but that's where the system has forced them to stay. Economic oppression.

We're all familiar in the United States of America with racial oppression where people are held down because of the color of their skin and the color of their skin prohibits them access to that which the rest of the society has free access to simply because how they look.

There is domestic oppression. Some of us grew up in oppressive homes where we were told we were nobody, we were never going to be anything, we couldn't expect to be anything, we were dumb. You know when people have been affected that way because even when there's nobody surrounding them to oppress them, they oppress themselves. Self-oppression. All designed to stifle your potential and your God-given future.

Then of course there's the worst kind of oppression of all, spiritual oppression. That's where the devil has his way with your life. He's telling you you've got to stay on these drugs, you've got to stay in this alcohol, you have to stay in this relationship that's doing you no good. You have to stay there. You can't break out. This is your lot in life. You've been living with that spiritual oppression so long, you believe it's the truth. You believe you were born to be oppressed.

The Bible says Jesus came to set the captives free. That oppression is not to be your middle name. That oppression is not to be the state that you live in. It's not to be how you operate. That you have been freed by creation simply because you're human, and then even more so by redemption because you are a child of God.

Israel is being held hostage in Egypt. Verse 23 of Exodus 2: "Now it came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died and the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage and they cried out and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God." They were in bondage. Remember, freedom is release from illegitimate bondage.

What happened? Well, if you look at chapter 1, verse 8, it says a new king rose in Egypt who did not know Joseph. The people of the sons of Israel, they said are more mighty than we. Come, let us deal wisely with them or else they will multiply and in the event of war they will also join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and depart from the land. So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor.

Verse 12: "But the more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied and they spread." Verse 13: "The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor vigorously and they made their lives bitter with hard labor." The end of verse 14: "which they rigorously imposed on them." Notice the words: imposed, compelled, bitter, afflicted, taskmaster. They were being bound. They were being forced. They were being driven.

Why? Why was there oppression? Because the oppressor did not want them to be free. The oppressor said if we let these people go free, they'll become too strong. That's what he says. And that's what oppression always wants to do. It wants to limit you becoming strong. It wants to limit what God can do in your life.

And so it begins to work its insidious evil in order to stop you from realizing your maximum potential. See, that's how you have to look at this thing. You have to look at this thing, whether it's spiritual oppression or whatever kind of oppression it is. It's trying to stop you because God has destined you for freedom, which has to do with maximizing your potential under God. God has redeemed you for freedom.

But the problem was there was an evil king who did not want them to be free, who wanted to keep them hostage. I'm here today to tell you freedom is your middle name. I don't care how long you have been oppressed. They had been oppressed for 430 years. I don't care how old you are today. Today is the day of your freedom. Whether it's self-imposed freedom, freedom by somebody else, freedom even in a culture, unless you understand that oppression in any form is against the will of God, no matter how legitimate it's been made to sound by the oppressor.

God's gift to you today is freedom. What did the king want? The king of Egypt wanted to use the children of Israel to further his agenda. What does the devil want? To use you to further his agenda. What he doesn't want you to do is to find out what God's got in store for you. He doesn't want you to further God's agenda. He wants you to further his agenda. And he knows if he can hook you up on something that now controls you. That's why Paul says, "I will be controlled by nothing."

You can be led by people, you can be led by things, but once something is controlling you, it has taken over God's place in your life. The Bible has a word for that. It's called idolatry. Nobody is supposed to be able to control you but God. Folk can influence, folk can lead, folk can direct, but they're not supposed to be able to put their thumb on you so that you define you by them rather than by what God has created you to be.

It says that the people groaned in chapter 2. They sighed because of their bondage. Because oppression has a way of crushing the human spirit. It causes the spirit to just die, to just shrivel up. And you see it. You can see it on a face of a child who's been oppressed by a parent. You can certainly see it on a wife who's been oppressed by a husband. You can see it in a man's eyes who's been oppressed by his employer, who's been made to feel like nothing.

Nobody has the right to your spirit but God. Now they may want to crush your spirit. They may want to tear down your spirit. See, that's why it's very important that you know that God tells you you're free. Because if you don't know that God tells you you're free, then other folk will define you.

Guest (Male): Dr. Evans will point out the biggest danger in letting others define us or oppress us when he returns in just a moment. First, though, I want to tell you about a powerful set of resources we've put together to help you build on what you've been hearing today. It starts with all 12 full-length messages from Tony's current teaching series, Free At Last. A practical, biblical look at how to leave the past behind and live in the freedom that comes with your identity in Christ.

In these lessons, you'll discover how to break free from cycles of fear, insecurity, guilt, and discouragement and begin experiencing the kind of spiritual stability God intended for you. Along with the audio series, we'll also include Tony's companion book, Free At Last. It's a popular, powerful resource that goes hand in hand with these messages, helping you understand who you are in Christ and how that truth changes everything.

We'd love to send you both as our thank-you gift when you make a contribution to support the ministry. This is a limited-time opportunity, so visit tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222 for details. I'll have that information for you again after part 2 of today's lesson and this.

Leading in ministry can feel overwhelming at times, but you don't have to go it alone. The Kingdom Leaders Summit is designed to encourage and equip pastors and church leaders with practical tools for effective ministry. Join Dr. Tony Evans April 30th through May 1st at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, for two days of focused teaching, meaningful discussion, and valuable fellowship with leaders who share your heart for God's kingdom. You'll gain insights you can use in every area of church leadership from worship and children's ministry to administration and outreach. Reset, refresh, and recharge your life, your church, and your ministry. Learn more and register today at KEP2026.com. That's KEP2026.com.

Dr. Tony Evans: Verse 23 again of chapter 2: "It came about in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died and the sons of Israel sighed and they cried out." In other words, they got used to oppression. The king was no longer there that they remembered that there was a God bigger than the king because the king had obscured God.

God told Israel, he said, "When you get to the Promised Land, don't expect any more manna from above. On the wilderness, I'm going to rain down your blessing. When you get there, pick up the shovel and the pick and you plow the land, because freedom demands responsibility." So we got folk waiting for God to drop stuff from heaven when God is saying I thought you wanted to be free. And that means you take ownership and responsibility in order to enjoy freedom. You can't enjoy freedom and be irresponsible at the same time.

He says that when the king died, when government was no longer to handle this situation, they now are remembering God had a covenant. It says the covenant that he had with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They remembered God had something to say about this. What did God tell Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? God says, "I'm going to bless you, and through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed." They remembered, "And I'm going to curse those who curse you, and I'm going to bless those who bless you."

So it dawned on them when they remembered the covenant, God said He was going to curse those who curse us because we're His covenanted people. Egypt has been cursing us with bondage and oppression. But God said if they curse us, they curse Him. Oppressors always want to withhold information because oppressors don't want you to have the rest of the information because they want to keep you under their thumb because they want to control your future. Limit your destiny so that you don't maximize your potential.

But it says they remembered the covenant. They remembered that God had made an agreement to curse those who curse them and bless those who bless them. You have been created and you have been redeemed to be free, to fulfill your calling under God. And anybody who seeks to take that is doing so illegitimately, and you need to know that. You may not be able to change the situation right now. It may be too big, it may be too social, it may be too economic. But at least you need to know that you've been called to be free. You have the right to take the initiative to pursue your freedom.

So how do you do that? You've got to first of all know you have the right to be free. To be unencumbered from God's calling on your life. Now you don't have the right to be irresponsible. You don't have the right to fall under God's chain of command. Children obey your parents, wives legitimately submit to your husbands, husbands submit to Christ. You don't have the right to break God's plan and program, but you have the right to pursue your full potential under God.

One of the great freedoms you need to know about is freedom from legalism. Legalism are rules set up to hold you religiously hostage. They're controlling, in the name of God they are oppressive. And so they make you so fearful about God going to beat you up. They make you so fearful that God's going to get you. So what they do is drive fear. And they drive fear so that you can give them their money so that you can make sure you're at every service so you can do that. And they make fear, your fear as the driving point of how well you function.

And nobody can function free living in fear. You can't function that way. You can't maximize your potential because you're always trembling. You're always nervous. God has said you have the right to be free. Jesus said, "I have come to set the captives free." Luke 4. Freedom is your right.

Secondly, you cry out to God! Dictator regimes want to limit religious expression. The reason why slavery was not allowed to sustain itself in America is because God was kept a part of the equation, even to the point of the Constitution. So as long as you could appeal to a freeing God, then it always limits slavery. That's why those kind of regimes don't want God as part of the culture and they want to squash religious freedom because religious freedom makes people free.

God is so committed to freedom he told his disciples who wanted to call down fire from heaven to burn up people who weren't responding to their message, Jesus told them they have the right not to believe. You are free not to even believe. God gives you the freedom to reject him. You know how much God believes in freedom? He gives you the freedom to say no to him.

I am saying you have a right to be free and because you do, you should be setting other people free. You know the tragedy of the Revolutionary War was that people who wanted to be free from England went out and started making other folk slaves. That's a contradiction. You fighting for freedom while incarcerating a whole race of people. It's a contradiction.

But we have the contradiction in our own lives. We want to be treated as free while we hold other folk hostage. No, no, no. If you want to be free you should be setting others free. You should be releasing others within the bounds of propriety and what's right, releasing them to become all that they were called to be under God.

There's so many gifts and talents that have been held hostage from your mama, your daddy, your uncle, been held hostage by the people you grew up with, by your past. You mean you are being held hostage, you are under this and you have the right to be free.

His name is Charles Dutton, you know the actor. He was in prison. He was asked by a reporter one day, "How did you make it in prison?" He said, "The way I made it was I refused to decorate my cell." You've got to catch that. He said, "The way I made it, I was incarcerated, couldn't get out, but other guys would have pictures up in their cells. They'd put flowers up in their cells. I wouldn't put any pictures up there. I wouldn't be putting any flowers because I was going to never make this home."

Don't make your oppression home. Don't make that home. Don't act like this is where I'm supposed to be for the rest of my life, so I might as well get comfortable here because I'm stuck. As long as God is part of the equation, you're not stuck. And you always look for that day when he's going to break through and open up that cell door. Don't put pictures up in your oppression. Don't make it think like this is the only place I'm ever going to be and I'm never going to be nothing and I'm never going to make anything out of my life and I'm never going to make enough money to pay my bills and I'm never going to be able to be used of God and I'm never, I'm never. That's putting pictures up in your cell.

No, you never call an oppressed situation home. Don't call that home. In other words, you can get so used to decorating your cell, you decide slavery is home. You decide I'm never going to be able to ascend, I'm never going to be able to grow, I'm never going to be able to build my own business even though I feel that's what God wants me to do. I'm never going to be able to do it because times are so hard and things are so bad and I'm never going to be able to do it. That's the talk of a man who doesn't know God. That's a talk of a woman who doesn't know God. That's a talk of one who doesn't understand the covenant.

God has declared you have the right to be free. Act like a free man. Walk like a free man even if you have to walk in your cell. You walk like a free man, a free woman, one who's been declared to be free by God, one who's been declared to be free by redemption. You walk like a free man, talk like a free man. And I know folk ain't going to understand how you walking free in a cell because I've already consulted God and He got the key. So I'm practicing my free walk now. I'm practicing my free walk now for the time when God opens up the opportunity for me to fully express it. Why not practice being free if you expect to be free?

How can we be 100% certain that expectation is dependable? Well, Dr. Evans is back now to explain.

If you're not absolutely sure that you have received salvation, that you're on your way to heaven, then let's get that straight right now. God offers you salvation as a free gift because of the sacrifice of His Son. And if you will come to Jesus Christ, acknowledging your need for a savior because you recognize you're a sinner, recognizing you can't save yourself, and appealing to Jesus to apply His death into your life, He will come in, forgive your sins, and give you eternal life right now. Simply say to the Lord, I know I'm a sinner. I know I need a savior. I'm believing in you alone to be my savior. So I now accept your offer to give me eternal life and the forgiveness of sins. And then thank Him for the free salvation He just gave you.

To find out more, visit tonyevans.org and follow the link that says Jesus. Dr. Evans has posted a short, powerful video that explains what real Christianity is about, along with some free follow-up resources. Check it out today and discover the amazing difference God can make in your life.

As I mentioned earlier, today's message is part of Tony's Free At Last series. For a limited time, we're offering all 12 full-length messages along with his companion book by the same name as our thank-you gift when you make a donation to help us continue this ministry. These resources are designed to help you move beyond past struggles and step into the freedom Christ has already given all believers. Call us right away at 1-800-800-3222. Our resource center is open 24/7. Or visit tonyevans.org to request the Free At Last package deal online. While you're there, be sure to sign up for Tony's free weekly email devotional. Again, that's tonyevans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222.

Most of us love doing things for our kids, but we also know it's important to teach them responsibility. Well, Dr. Evans says God wants the same for us. Tomorrow, he talks about how to grow strong in that important area. I hope you'll join us.